From Chart Toppers To Cult Classics When Music Ruled The Airwaves
In 1983, Stephen Morris from NEW ORDER said to Smash Hits: “If you believe in the charts, then you might as well believe in fairies” but occasionally, those fairies could sprinkle some magic dust.
‘Every UK Hit Single: 1980’ aims to tell “The story of 1980 – every hit, every memory, one unforgettable year in pop: 370 singles, 225 artists, 25 chart toppers!”. Putting things into wider perspective, those numbers are still small considering the amount of record releases in any given year during a time when there was no streaming, no downloading, no social media and even no CD!
Author Richard West has a lifelong fascination with popular music and realised his dream of chart entries as a member of progressive metal bands THRESHOLD and OBLIVION PROTOCOL with recognition across Europe and the UK’s specialist listings. He even published a memoir ‘Maybe A Writer: My Life in Threshold’ that traced his journey from his teenage years living by numbers following the charts to becoming a recording artist.
‘Every UK Hit Single: 1980’ is the first volume in a series documenting every Top 40 entry with the intention of covering 1981 and beyond. The format is chronological with two paragraphs on each single, one factual and one of trivia. What it does lack however is opinion, so this is more of a reference book.
Despite the popularity of Gary Numan in 1979, synth-based pop music was still fledgling as far as being a regular chart proposition was concerned. However, Japanese Technopop trio YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA would score a surprise No17 hit with their 1978 electronic cover of American composer Martin Denny’s 1959 exotica instrumental ‘Firecracker’, mistitled as ‘Computer Game (Theme From The Invader)’.
Although the original could be seen as an early form of cultural appropriation using every pentatonic cliché in the book, Haroumi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto took it back and gave the tune authenticity. Their treatment acted as a symbol of the Far East’s advancement in affordable technology which was crucial to the rise of the synth.
While 1980 would establish its own electronic legacy, the man born Gary Webb was already being seen as heading down the dumper with both ‘We Are Glass’ and ‘I Die: You Die’ failing to secure the top spot after ‘Are Friends Electric?’ and ‘Cars’ both hit No1 the year before.
Considered his nearest rival artistically at the time, Numan’s biggest influence John Foxx was fresh out of ULTRAVOX but the fact that his even more dystopian electro pieces like ‘Underpass’, ‘No-One Driving’ and ‘Burning Car’ were even entering the Top 40 was nothing short of amazing and indicative of the adventurous eclectic nature of 1980.
Meanwhile the newly regrouped ULTRAVOX now fronted by Midge Ure got the Top 40 entry that was not even close during their Foxx-era with ‘Sleepwalk’ but while it was a breakthrough, it wouldn’t be until the title track of the parent album ‘Vienna’ was a single in 1981 that they would become chart fixtures.
Despite the critical acclaim for the likes of THE HUMAN LEAGUE, JAPAN and SIMPLE MINDS, it was a young duo from Merseyside who would steal their thunder as far as the Top 40 was concerned; ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK were notable for being one of the rising wave of warmer synthesizer acts but while extremely melodic and rhythmic, their lyrics on ‘Messages’ and more significantly ‘Enola Gay’ had darker overtones. Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys would end 1980 as the biggest selling artist in the Virgin Records group despite being signed to one of its subsidiaries Dindisc.
One often forgotten synth-driven band who actually managed three Top 40 single entries in 1980 was NEW MUSIK; led by Tony Mansfield, like a certain Trevor Horn with BUGGLES, he figured he would have more influence in the studio rather than being on ‘Top Of The Pops’. He would go on to produce a No 1 for Captain Sensible while also working with the likes of AZTEC CAMERA, NAKED EYES and A-HA. Meanwhile at the start of 1980, Vangelis debuted in the UK Top 40 with YES frontman Jon Anderson and the gorgeous ‘I Hear You Now’.
Sadly, Ian Curtis was never to have a Top 40 hit in his lifetime as ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ would posthumously get a No13 hit for JOY DIVISION. But surviving members Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris with new member Gillian Gilbert would have that chart fairy dust sprinkled on them several times as NEW ORDER.
Although the New Romantics were being talked about as the rising youth movement, it would be the man who sold the world and seeded the whole party in the first place that would use it for an artistic renaissance; David Bowie was taken to The Blitz by club regular and RCA label assistant Jacqueline Bucknell to cast members of the clientele including its “face” Steve Strange for the video of his new single ‘Ashes To Ashes’.
While the song reached No1 and Bowie himself would move on, others from The Blitz knew their time had come. SPANDAU BALLET would release ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ towards the end of year to herald a fresh aspirational mindset in pop while issued a few weeks later, ‘Fade To Grey’ by the Steve Strange-fronted VISAGE wouldn’t hit big until the start of 1981 but would become the biggest selling single in West Germany of that year.
1980 though was not really about the emergence of warmer and dancier synthesizer sounds. The year was dominated by ska with the likes of THE SPECIALS, THE BEAT and MADNESS scoring at least 4 Top 40 hits each but perhaps unbelievably and reflective of every generation needing its dose of imagined nostalgia, rockabilly band MATCHBOX scored 5 Top 40 hits!
1980 is often best remembered for 3 No1s for BLONDIE, 2 No1s for THE JAM and 2 No1s for ABBA, with consistent charts runs for the likes of THE POLICE, QUEEN and ROXY MUSIC while disco provided chart toppers for Fern Kinney and Kelly Marie. Without even mentioning Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, mods, rockers or the new wave of British heavy metal, this was a year of musical diversity and ‘Every UK Hit Single: 1980’ documents that.
Musician and producer Bill Nelson has released over 100 solo albums and EPs while also working with numerous other artists including SKIDS, A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS, FIAT LUX and YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA.
Born in Wakefield and given his first guitar, a Gibson ES345 by his father who played sax led his own dance band, Bill Nelson released his debut album ‘Northern Dream’ in 1971 but first found fame as the leader of the acclaimed progressive rock band BE BOP DELUXE who released 5 albums between 1974 to 1978.
He was a leading exponent of the E-Bow, a handheld battery-powered device that created infinite sustain on a guitar by generating a magnetic field to vibrate a single string. Having been given an early model by its inventor Greg Heet while he was in BE BOP DELUXE, Nelson found he could create unique sounding textures that would often be mistaken for synthesizers. Other E-Bow users included Stuart Adamson, Rob Dean, Andy Taylor, The Edge and Pat Metheny.
This coincided with Nelson’s flaming desire to experiment more with electronics on the final BE BOP DELUXE album ‘Drastic Plastic’. Tiring of the limitation of guitar sounds and wanting to work without a band, he got into synths and drum machines. Like other guitarists of the new wave era, Nelson tried guitar synthesizers and in his case, it was the Hagstrom Patch 2000. One of the issues arising from guitar synths was that if a string was unintentionally hit, an unwanted note would be triggered. These quirks ultimately made the E-Bow more practical although it was still tricky to master.
Having been inspired by David Bowie’s Berlin era records ‘Low’ and ‘Heroes’ to pursue a more electronic direction after dissolving BE BOP DELUXE, Nelson formed RED NOISE which featured his brother Ian on sax. But after their debut record, a Bowie-influenced new wave art rock album titled ‘Sound On Sound’, RED NOISE were dropped by Harvest Records despite signing them on the strength of Nelson’s involvement in BE BOP DELUXE.
Photo by Sheila Rock
Nelson reworked what would have been the second RED NOISE album and released as his first solo album ‘Quit Dreaming and Get On The Beam’ via Mercury Records who had signed him after he released a single ‘Do You Dream In Colour?’ on his newly set-up independent label Cocteau in 1980. Setting up a home studio, among the synths in Nelson’s arsenal were a Minimoog, Yamaha CS70M and ARP Omni.
As well as being an outlet for his more experimental work, Cocteau also showcased new artists to major labels with A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS and FIAT LUX signing to Jive and Polydor respectively after their debut singles were produced and released by Nelson. He would go on to produce other artists such as Nash The Slash and Gary Numan although he never saw it as a potential career in the way that Trevor Horn and Tony Mansfield did.
There came a fruitful relationship with Yukihiro Takahashi of YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA with tha pair playing on each other’s records and perfroming live together but after leaving Mercury, Nelson signed to the CBS imprint Portrait. But the relationship was tense and ended after just one album ‘Getting the Holy Ghost Across’ in 1986. During this time, he launched the more sample-based New Age side project ORCHESTRA ARCANA but by now Nelson had marriage, tax and management problems to deal with as well as the collapse of Enigma Records who he signed to in 1988. Nelson convalesced by producing ‘The Familiar’, a gentle meditative album by Roger Eno and Kate St John released in 1992 using primarily traditional instrumentation.
Since then, Bill Nelson has remained fiercely independent and outside of the mainstream music business, having built up a strong and loyal worldwide fan base who embrace his song-based work, ambient compositions and soundtracks for art installations, exhibitions and theatrical presentations.
“The ‘ambient’ things, the ‘rock’ things, the ‘pop’ things don’t exist as separate, discreet entities in my creative heart, they’re just facets of one, personal, unchanging musical expression” he said on his website, “I personally regard all these categorisations as outward manifestations of a single interior vision, rather than some kind of split-personality or any desire to appear ‘multi-talented’.”
Still very prolific, in 2023 alone, he released 5 albums via his own Sonoluxe label while Nelson issued his most recent long player ‘Studio Cadet’ in 2024. He has far too many works now to cover in one article so here acting as a Beginner’s Guide to Bill Nelson and his more electronic-based material is a summary of 20 tracks tracing his work up to the start of the millennium…
BE BOP DELUXE Electrical Language (1978)
Uncomfortable with the cult “guitar hero” status he had acquired, Nelson had become disillusioned and wanted to experiment with his Minimoog. The exotic ‘Electrical Language’ documented the moment when he went electro. Co-produced by John Leckie who would go on to work with MAGAZINE, SIMPLE MINDS and THE HUMAN LEAGUE, the track displayed an affinity with New Wave. Nelson unexpectedly split up the band whilst on the cusp of mainstream success.
Available on the BE-BOP DELUXE album ‘Drastic Plastic’ via Esoteric Recordings
Nelson formed a new band RED NOISE with a flexible line-up which included his brother Ian on sax which he regarded as an escape from BE-BOP DELUXE. With no need to compromise with band mates in his new fiery experimental vision, the first single ‘Furniture Music’ saw Nelson vocally adopt the staccato stylings of SPARKS while embodying a dystopian Orwellian atmosphere commensurate with the Cold War tensions of the times.
Available on the BILL NELSON’S RED NOISE album ‘Sound-on-Sound’ via Esoteric Recordings
After the unintelligible ‘Into The Valley’ and the Mick Glossop-helmed ‘Working For The Yankee Dollar’, when Bill Nelson produced the second SKIDS album ‘Days in Europa’, he brought in drum machines and keyboards. Utilising the CR78 Compurhythm later heard on OMD’s ‘Enola Gay’, ’Charade’ had a riffing mechanical energy offset by electronic pulses that set the Scottish punk band apart from the likes of STIFF LITTLE FINGERS and ANGELIC UPSTARTS.
Available on the SKIDS album ‘Days In Europa’ via Virgin Records
Finally opting to go solo and independent with his own Cocteau label after being dropped by the EMI-affiliated EMI, the quirky ‘Do You Dream In Colour?’ had similar lyrical gists to THE NORMAL’s ‘TVOD’ but was misinterpreted as being about heroin addiction. Punctuated with bursts of sax from brother Ian, the single reached a respectable No52 on the UK singles chart and was the catalyst to a new deal with Mercury Records.
The only release by LAST MAN IN EUROPE, the duo comprised Jeff Wilson and Trevor Abbott. The second single issued on Cocteau, ‘A Certain Bridge’ was a slice of doomy goth in the vein of JOY DIVISION and THE CURE produced by Nelson. With repetitious drum machine and freaky synth soloing at the end, vocally there was the tense post-punk snarl of the times to go alongside the jagged guitar figures.
Featuring a nucleus of Steve Walker and Dave Purcell, their Cocteau single ‘Airfields’ was not only produced by Nelson but also featured him playing superb bass figures in a manner reminiscent of Barry Adamson from MAGAZINE. With sparks of icy string machine and death disco rhythms, this mysterious offering was like LAST MAN IN EUROPE, on the doomy side and came over like a dystopian DURAN DURAN.
Subtitled “And Rides The Bullet Train”, REVOX CADETS was Nelson pretending to be a band while also writing under the pseudonym of VU Disney in order to release material on Cocteau outside of his deal with Mercury Records. Falling under the spell of Japan and adopting appealing pentatonic synth tones over a treated drum machine backbone, the locomotive track was double A sided with TO HEAVEN A JET’s ‘Airfield’.
Available on the BILL NELSON album ‘Transcorder (The Acquitted By Mirrors Recordings)’ via Sonoluxe
A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS had got their original break when Bill Nelson produced and released their debut single ‘(It’s Not Me) Talking’ for his Cocteau label in 1981, attracting the attention of the Arista-affiliated Jive Records. The short and punchy ‘Telecommunication’ was their major-label debut and also produced by Nelson. Percussive metallic synths and Sci-Fi lyrics combined with power chords to provide a hit on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart.
With its various Far Eastern inflections, the ‘Quit Dreaming & Get On The Beam’ album had come to the attention of Yukihiro Takahashi and with it came the invitation to play on the YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA drummer’s next solo album ‘What, Me Worry?’. One track that Nelson contributed E-Bow to was ‘This Strange Obsession’, a frantic duet between Zaine Griff (who had also written the song) and chanteuse Ronny.
Available on the YUKIHIRO TAKAHASHI album ‘What, Me Worry?’ via Yen Records / Great Tracks
Curious about employing trance rhythm ideas, Nelson went to town on the electronics with a greater emphasis on synthesizers for his second solo album ‘The Love That Whirls’; with prominent machine rhythms, screaming synth-sounding E-bow guitar, as “Love turns to lust, ice into fire”, ‘Flaming Desire’ swirled with a mannered passion that provided an ecstatic sexual tension not heard before in Nelson’s previous work.
Masami Tsuchiya was best known as the leader of IPPU DO and being in the final live line-up of JAPAN. Not only did Mick Karn and Steve Jansen feature on the title track of his debut solo record but also Bill Nelson with his “Flying E-Bow” guitar. Using koto and synths to provide the traditionally-flavoured backbone, Nelson’s E-Bow and Tsuchiya’s own six string combined for something sounding like a JAPAN instrumental.
Available on the MASAMI TSUCHIYA album ‘Rice Music’ via Epic Records
Originally a duo comprising Steve Wright and David P Crickmore, the former joined the Yorkshire Actors theatre company where he met Nelson who produced their debut single ‘Feels Like Winter Again’. The cutting mix of synth and treated guitar over an electronic pulse and machine beats juxtaposed with bass guitar complimented Wright’s sombre tale of broken love affairs. Nelson’s brother Ian would later join FIAT LUX.
Gary Numan was making a full live comeback after retiring in 1981, but he was put under pressure from his label Beggars Banquet employ a producer for his next album. Bill Nelson took on the role but the two quickly fell out in the studio. One track that the pair completed was ‘My Car Slides 1’, a beautiful ballad featuring Nelson’s distinctive E-bowed guitar. Alas, it was not included in Numan’s revision of the eventual ‘Warriors’ album.
Available on the GARY NUMAN album ‘Warriors’ via Beggars Banquet
Having played on Yukihiro Takahashi’s ‘What, Me Worry?’, Nelson was invited to join the sessions for the next YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA album ‘Naughty Boys’. The end result was a very sophisticated pop record with ‘Kimi Ni Mune Kyun’ becoming their biggest hit. Short on the trio’s usual quirkiness, Nelson himself felt they could have taken more risks in the final mix but the track ‘Focus’ had much more of a growl.
Available on the YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA album ‘Naughty Boys’ via Beggars Banquet
A development of the electronica structured tracks that came from ‘The Love That Whirls’, ‘Acceleration’ came after Nelson’s work with Yukihiro Takahashi who provided several drum tracks for him to compose around. Featuring live percussion and synced rhythmic devices, it was possibly the most overt pop song in the Bill Nelson catalogue, the single version got an extra American disco edge via a remix from producer John Luongo.
Available on the BILL NELSON album ‘Chimera’ via Mercury Records
YUKIHIRO TAKAHASHI featuring BILL NELSON Bounds Of Reason, Bounds Of Love (1984)
As with his previous solo albums, Yukihiro Takahashi happy to let guest take a lead vocal and on his sixth album ‘Wild & Moody’, Bill Nelson played guitar, wrote lyrics and sang on one of its highlights ‘Bounds Of Reason, Bonds Of Love’. Co-produced by Iva Davies of ICEHOUSE with Ryuichi Sakamoto on Fairlight, this was a slab of electro-funk was authentically enhanced by the inappropriately named Rodney Drummer on bass guitar.
Available on the YUKIHIRO TAKAHASHI album ‘Wild & Moody’ via Yen Records / Great Tracks
‘Acquitted By Mirrors’ was the Bill Nelson Fan Club magazine published between 1982 to 1990; 12” EPs were given exclusively to members with alternating issues. The ‘Cote D’Azur’ EP was the seventh and came with Issue 13 and on it was a delightful YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA influenced instrumental called ‘A Dream Fulfilled’. Its drum track clearly had the hallmarks of Yukihiro Takahashi so was it a ‘Chimera’ outtake?
Available on the BILL NELSON album ‘Transcorder’ via Sonoluxe
For David Sylvian’s ambitious second double album, Bill Nelson collaborated with the former JAPAN front man on 6 tracks including 3 instrumentals. One of the songs was the countrified ‘Silver Moon’ which saw his distinctive E-Bow alongside the Frippertronics of Robert Fripp and pedal steel exponent BJ Cole. Usually upbeat, this was Sylvian at his most romantic since ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’ despite the uncertainty expressed.
Available on the DAVID SYLVIAN album ‘Gone To Earth’ via Virgin Records
RAIN TREE CROW was the JAPAN reunion in all but name. Bill Nelson’s guest involvement in JAPAN had been mooted as far back as ‘Tin Drum’. He appeared the tribal instrumental ‘Big Wheels In Shanty Town’ and the wonderfully mellow single ‘Blackwater’ which was perhaps the only track from the sessions that bore any relation to JAPAN’s past The quartet of Sylvian, Mick Karn, Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri would split again.
Available on the RAIN TREE CROW album ‘Rain Tree Crow’ via Virgin Records
An adventure in avant garde drum ‘n’ bass, sax and E-Bow and near spoken vocals, ‘Blink Agog’ came from ‘After the Satellite Sings’, a record that Nelson would later declare as one of his favourites where there were a number of musical departures. Written, performed, recorded and mixed in an intense 28 day session, according to guitarist Reeves Gabrels, it was said to have been an influence on David Bowie’s ‘Earthling’ album,
A variety of Bill Nelson music released since 2007 and a selection of his back catalogue is available digitally from https://billnelson.bandcamp.com/music
The general purpose of a live album is to document a concert experience. But such is the average person’s equipment used for listening to music at home, in the car or on earphones, the capabilities of quality PA systems can never be replicated.
Something of a credible rock staple, live albums are often seen as profile builders and tour adverts, symbolic of an act hitting the big time while greatest hits collections can be perceived as an indicator of a career on the wane.
However, in the synth-laden electronic world, the live album is something of a polarising beast. With a significant number of acts reliant on tapes and latterly pre-programmed backing tracks, live albums can be rendered almost pointless with parts often sounding almost identical to the original record. In many cases, overdubs and new vocals are prevalent and essential.
But even some of the best known live rock albums such as THIN LIZZY ‘Live & Dangerous’ and KISS ‘Alive!’ were heavily tinkered with in the studio during post-production. Of the former, producer Tony Visconti reckoned the album was “75% recorded in the studio” with only the drums and audience noise remaining from the original live recordings. Meanwhile of the latter, Gene Simmons later said “Most people assume it was all live. It wasn’t” with only the drums remaining from the original shows recorded. On the opposite side of the coin, Joe Jackson recorded his ‘Big World’ live album in front of invited audiences who were instructed NOT to clap.
Photo by Chi Ming Lai
While the spirit of a performance is an essential ingredient on a live album, extra parts or arrangements not used in the actual shows can cause much head scratching, as can the inclusion of unrelated studio recordings. A concert is for a particular moment in time and for that reason, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK is not generally enthusiastic of live recordings but accepts they have their place and can have their moments.
Not a best of, here are 20 records listing the good, the bad and the pointless to represent The Electronic Legacy of LIVE ALBUMS. These are subject to the conditions that they are standalone physical releases in their own right, not initially part of a corresponding live DVD or Bluray package, not a bootleg or a bonus CD in a deluxe boxed set; for this latter reason, OMD’s spirited 1983 ‘Dazzle Ships’ live presentation at Hammersmith Odeon that came with the ‘Souvenir’ career anthology is not included.
The albums are presented in yearly order and then alphabetical within…
TANGERINE DREAM Encore (1977)
‘Encore’ is seen as the definitive TANGERINE DREAM live album by the classic line-up of Edgar Froese, Christophe Franke and Peter Baumann. But as with their previous live release ‘Ricochet’, there were questions as to what was live and what was Memorex… opener ‘Cherokee Lane’ was edited together from several performances while on the second side, suspicions were raised that ‘Coldwater Canyon’ was a studio creation.
‘Encore’ was originally released by Virgin Records
A trailblazer for The Berlin School, Klaus Schulze saw synthesizers as a route to creative freedom and his imperial works like ‘Timewind’, ‘Moondawn’, ‘X’ and ‘Mirage’ were largely improvised live. Concerts were seen as an opportunity to spontaneously compose new works. On his first live album featuring concerts in Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris, ‘Sense’ was a half hour ball of hypnotic energy with live drums from Harald Grosskopf.
Recorded as a six-piece, ‘Public Pressure’ captured YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA walking a tightrope, utilising early synthesizer technology like syndrums, sequencers and a Moog modular out on the road. However, while fairly lively and with highlights like ‘Rydeen’ and ‘Tong Poo’, in the inevitable post-production, guitarist Kazumi Watanabe was mixed-out and replaced with more synths while most of Yukihiro Takahashi’s trademark on-off vocals were re-recorded.
A singular double LP boxed set, this live document captured highlights of Gary Numan during his imperial phase at Hammersmith Odeon during ‘The Touring Principle’ in 1979 and the 1980 ‘Teletour’. Engineered and co-mixed by Tim Summerhayes, this remains one of the best live releases of its type with ‘Living Ornaments 80’ just nudging ahead. The release coincided with Numan’s retirement from live work with three concerts at Wembley Arena… that retirement lasted just over a year!
In 1981, Jean-Michel Jarre became the first Western rock musician to perform in China. The five live performances as a 4 piece ensemble included the debut of the Laser Harp. Jarre also composed new material for the occasion with highlights including the dramatic ‘Arpegiator’ and the elegiac studio closer ‘Souvenir Of China’. But one particular track stood out, a traditional rearrangement with The Peking Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra, retitled ‘Fishing Junks At Sunset’.
‘Oil On Canvas’ was a contractual obligation by the now-split up JAPAN. Only the drums came from the band’s run of Hammersmith Odeon shows during their final tour with other parts redone in the studio. The version of ‘Nightporter’ bore no relation to the actual arrangement performed while three unrelated ambient pieces were included instead of ‘Life In Tokyo’, ‘European Son’ and ‘Fall In Love With Me’ which were part of the live set!
Leaving listeners wanting more, ‘Monument’ originally only featured 6 tracks including the studio intro title track with the hits ‘Vienna’, ‘Reap The Wild Wind’ and ‘Hymn’. Superbly capturing ULTRAVOX on their 1982 ‘Quartet’ tour, the undoubted highlight was the elongated rendition of ‘The Voice’ with the energetic THIN LIZZY-inspired Simmons drum climax. ‘Monument’ has since been expanded into 8 track and later 9 track variants.
‘Monument’ was originally released by Chrysalis Records
Released at the height of their worldwide fame, ‘Arena’ was sadly more ‘Oil On Canvas’ than either ‘Living Ornaments 79 & 80’, ‘Monument’ or ‘101’. Unlike the latter, it now symbolises the downfall of DURAN DURAN rather than the rise. The mix was muddy and not a patch on the subsequent soundtracks of the DVD releases of their Hammersmith Odeon 1982 and Wembley Arena 2004 shows. The incongruous inclusion of the single ‘The Wild Boys’ no doubt helped shift copies.
On the ‘Sparkle In The Rain’ and ‘Once Upon A Time’ tours, SIMPLE MINDS had been pompously bloating songs out for up to 10 minutes. The excesses were dialled down for this well-recorded if frustrating record. There was much post-production tinkering with ‘Someone Somewhere In Summertime’ featuring extra violin by Lisa Germano while uncredited, former bassist Derek Forbes was brought in replace John Giblin’s live take.
“Who have thought DEPECHE MODE plink-plonking away would play in stadiums?” bemoaned Jim Kerr of SIMPLE MINDS in 2004; but ‘101’ recorded at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in 1988 affirmed their arrival into the stadium league. The audience was mixed so loud that the band were almost drowned out while Dave Gahan bellowing “YEAH!” was a frequent occurrence. In a drumhead free zone, this was an enjoyable set capturing more comparatively innocent times.
Recorded on location in Tokyo and Osaka, this live collection saw Manuel Göttsching, Lutz Ulbrich and Harald Grosskopf reunite the 1979-80 band incarnation of ASHRA. Containing 3 lengthy tracks and the much shorter ‘Timbuktu’ in an energetic set with hypnotic blend of progressive guitar and electronics. The highlight was the magnificent sample-free take on 1990’s ‘Twelve Samples’. A second volume was issued in 2002.
‘@shra’ was originally released by Think Progressive
In their heyday, HEAVEN 17 never toured. Recorded in Glasgow when the trio came out of hiatus and opened for ERASURE in 1998, the 50 minute set was very electronic, in line with their comeback album ‘Bigger Than America’. Packed full of their best known songs and a version of ‘Being Boiled’, some new arrangements fell under the spell of THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS but they impressed enough for repeat business and continue to play live regularly today.
Reuniting as SOFT CELL first time round in 2001, this double live album caught Marc Almond and Dave Ball in support of their 2002 comeback album ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’. Almond was particularly animated and sounded like he was having fun while Ball’s solid electronics grooved. Almond’s motorbike accident in 2004 put a stop to performing but SOFT CELL reunited again in 2018 for ‘One Night Only’ at London’s O2 Arena.
Featuring founder members Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, this first official KRAFTWERK live album provided another “is it live or is it Memorex?” conundrum. Suspicions were aroused with the credits in both English and German language versions indicating that many of the tracks were recorded at the same venues! Regardless, the crisp versions on ‘Minimum-Maximum’ provided a far superior listening experience than 1991’s ‘The Mix’.
YAZOO’s ‘Reconnected’ tour saw Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke completing unfinished business following their premature spilt in 1983. Clarke provided more analogue-tuned backing compared to the Fairlight-driven tracks of their 1982 tour while Moyet was in fine voice, to the point that you could be forgiven for thinking you were hearing the records if it wasn’t for her breaths. This was a wonderful souvenir for those who were there.
John Foxx’s 2002 live album ‘The Omnidelic Exotour’ with Louis Gordon had been recorded in rehearsals with no audience and ‘Rhapsody’ followed the same route. With a band featuring Benge with Serafina Steer and Hannah Peel, the quartet ran through highlights of the John Foxx portfolio alongside his ULTRAVOX! ballads ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ and ‘Just For A Moment’.
‘Rhapsody’ was originally released by Metamatic Records
Texans HYPERBUBBLE may look like a mutant Country & Western duo but are actually synthpop’s answer to Carter & Cash. ‘Live in London’ was a high quality recording from The Lexington that captured the heart of their “part-performance art, kitsch cabaret pop”. Like a greatest hits set, it featured 45 minutes of fun uptempo numbers including ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’ and ‘Non-Biodegradable Hazardous Waste Disposal’.
‘Live In London’ was originally released by Pure Pop For Now People
NEW ORDER featuring LIAM GILLICK ∑(No,12k,Lg,17Mif) (2019)
Back in the day, NEW ORDER were a rather shaky live act which meant their live bootlegs provided unintended entertainment. Since relaunching in 2011 without Peter Hook, they have released 5 live albums. The most interesting was ‘∑(No,12k,Lg,17Mif)’ when NEW ORDER played Manchester’s Old Granada Studios accompanied by a 12 piece synth orchestra. Aside from the dreadful ‘Who’s Joe’ and ‘Guilt Is A Useless Song’, it was a choice selection of firm fan favourites.
Swedish duo KITE performed two theatrical shows at the Royal Swedish Opera augmented by a 16 piece orchestra and choir. Filmed for broadcast on SVT2, the performances were issued as a live double album featuring a lengthy impassioned rendition of the epic ‘Up For Life’. Never doing things by halves, KITE have since performed at the cavernous former limestone quarry Dalhalla and more incredibly, on ice at Stockholm’s Avicii Arena.
Perhaps too ambitious in trying to take on the O2 Arena, OMD called on Howard Jones as opening act to help get bums on seats. The original solo synth man delivered an enjoyable 50 minute set with a band comprising right hand man Ronnie Bronnimann, the sadly missed Dan Clarke and KAJAGOOGOO bassist Nick Beggs; a cover of ‘Too Shy’ thrown in for good measure alongside ‘New Song’ and a danced-up ‘Things Can Only Get Better’.
At the start of 1978, disco and AOR was still ruling the airwaves.
ABBA had released ‘The Movie’ which reinforced their success of previous years while the UK charts became dominated by songs from the film ‘Grease’ which helped facilitate a rock ‘n’ roll flavoured revival led by bands like SHOWADDYWADDY, DARTS and RACEY!
Punk had peaked with THE SEX PISTOLS’ Johnny Rotten and his rhetorical statement “Ever Get the Feeling You’ve Been Cheated?”. However, punk’s ethos was mutating into a form of power pop under the guise of new wave with BLONDIE, BUZZCOCKS and THE BOOMTOWN RATS. One epic opus that captured the public imagination was ‘Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the World’; featuring synthesizer work from Ken Freeman, it complimented the album’s orchestrated rock with an alien science fiction edge.
Although first released in Autumn 1977, ‘Supernature’ by Cerrone belatedly became a Summer 1978 Top10 hit in the UK singles charts, indicating that after ‘I Feel Love’, ‘Oxygène’, ‘Magic Fly’, ‘Sound & Vision’ and ‘Trans-Europe Express’, electronic pop music had potential longevity and was not a novelty.
A new DIY art pop form was emerging as the independently produced singles ‘Warm Leatherette’ by THE NORMAL and ‘Being Boiled’ by THE HUMAN LEAGUE were released to an unsuspecting public but despite not troubling the mainstream due to their limited audience reach, they were to have a wider impact.
Meanwhile, as punk band TUBEWAY ARMY were preparing to record their debut long player, their leader Gary Numan tried a Minimoog that had been left behind from a previous studio session. It was to be an epiphanal moment as he decided that electronics would become a future part of his sound.
According to a recent Ace Records podcast hosted by Pete Paphides, his guest Bob Stanley said that Minimoog belonged to reggae legend Dennis Bovell who was working on a song he had just written called ‘Silly Games’. When it stalled at No2 sung by Janet Kay, in a bizarre coincidence, the single that was to stop it from getting to No1 in Summer 1979 was recorded in the same Gooseberry Studios in London’s Chinatown… it was ‘Are Friends Electric?’!!!
Here are 20 albums which ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK sees as contributing to the electronic legacy of 1978. They are listed in alphabetical order with a restriction of one album per artist moniker…
ASHRA Blackouts
Featuring “Sequencer, Keyboards and a lot of guitar” with the recommendation that “this record should be heard comfortably”, ‘Blackouts’ was Manuel Göttsching’s second album as ASHRA and while it did not quite have the total cosmic magic of its predecessor ‘New Age Of Earth’, it was a satisfying record. ‘Midnight On Mars’ set the scene while there was another wonderful 20 minute end piece in ‘Lotus Part I-IV’.
AUTOMAT were Romano Musmarra and Claudio Gizzi who released just one album. Stating “in the beginning there was the machine – the survival and the organization of the planet depended upon the machine – the future and the past depended upon the machine – …the past? But who wanted the machine?”, the key track was the eponymous three part electronic prog disco opus that would have made Giorgio Moroder proud. Meanwhile ‘Droid’ showed the Italian duo were also fans of Vangelis.
‘Automat’ was originally released by EMI Italiana, currently unavailable
BRIAN BENNETT Voyage (A Journey Into Discoid Funk)
The drummer for THE SHADOWS since 1961, Brian Bennett worked on theme music on the side and became inspired by the emergence of electronic disco from the likes of Giorgio Moroder and Marc Cerrone. Described as “A Journey Into Discoid Funk”, ‘Voyage’ was a cosmic affair with jazz and funk influences. Highlights included ‘Pendulum Force’, ‘Ocean Glide’ and ‘Chain Reaction’ while one track ‘Solstice’ was later sampled by rappers Kanye West and Nas.
Inspired by ‘Star Wars’, French space disco combo DROIDS were best known for their underground hit ‘(Do You Have) The Force’ in 1977. Included on it, their only album ‘Star Peace’ came the following year with material written and played by Yves Hayat using Moogs, ARPs and Oberheims. It was an enjoyable electronic romp with groovy tracks like ‘Be Happy’ and ‘Shanti Dance’ to take on fellow countrymen SPACE.
Fronted by Klaus Dinger from NEU! while also featuring his brother Thomas on percussion and Hans Lampe on drums, the second long player LA DÜSSELDORF ‘Viva’ was self-produced and their most successful album. There was the magnificent 20 minute madness of ‘Cha Cha 2000’, but the album also yielded the beautifully epic ‘Rheinita’, a glorious instrumental that became the blueprint for OMD’s ‘Architecture & Morality’ album.
Following aborted sessions with cult German band HARMONIA featuring Michael Rother of NEU! alongside Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius of CLUSTER, Brian Eno continued collaborations with the latter pair. With a wonderful 1977 ambient collection ‘Cluster & Eno’ to their name, their second album ‘After The Heat’ added Eno’s contemplative voice to the experimentation, the best track of which was the gentle sequencer led beauty of ‘The Belldog’.
This double album was released at the start of 1978 before TANGERINE DREAM took their vocal prog rock misstep with ‘Cyclone’. ‘Era Of The Slaves’ was a particular delight in the Berlin School vein with Edgar Froese channelling his creative energies wonderfully following the departure of Peter Baumann. Overall, ‘Ages’ was lively, as exemplified by ‘Nights of Automatic Women’ while ‘Children’s Deeper Study’ displayed a brighter tone.
The follow-up to the massively successful ‘Oxygène’, ‘Équinoxe’ was conceived as representing a day in a person’s life. As well expanded multitrack recording, ‘Équinoxe’ benefitted from the use of the customised Matrisequencer 250 designed by sound engineer Michel Geiss. The album’s eight parts were rich in melody, rhythm and in places neo-gothic grandeur. It confirmed Jean-Michel Jarre was not to be just a one-hit wonder.
By 1978, the classic KRAFTWERK line-up of Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos were at the height of their powers with ‘Trans Europe Express’ becoming an unexpected favourite on the New York dancefloors. ‘The Man Machine’ contained the belated hit single ‘The Model’ while there was also the Giorgio Moroder-inspired ‘Spacelab’ and ‘Metropolis’. With ‘The Robots’, the Das Quartett reinforced they were Musikarbeiter.
Having left TANGERINE DREAM and inspired by the success of ‘I Feel Love’, Peter Baumann produced Italian artist Leda on her album ‘Welcome To Joyland’. Applying his sequenced knowhow into a more song based format, highlights included the title song and the Giorgio Moroder aping ‘Future’. Something of a curio in his portfolio, it became a pointer to the pop based direction he launched in 1981 with ‘Repeat Repeat’.
‘Midnight Express’ was a graphic prison drama directed by Alan Parker who wanted electronic accompaniment in the style of ‘I Feel Love’ for a key scene in the film. Enter Giorgio Moroder who, assisted by Harold Faltermeyer, did just that with the mighty ‘Chase’. Meanwhile, the moody main theme and with its exotic overtones all but invented synthwave. Moroder would win his first Oscar for “Best Original Score”.
‘Midnight Express’ is still available via Casablanca Records / Universal Records
Richard Pinhas was a member of French rock band HELDON who became fascinated by the possibilities of experimental electronics. Inspired by sci-fi writers Michel Jeury and Frank Herbert, the ‘Chronolyse’ title suite was split into seven waves of cerebral minimalism reminiscent of Terry Riley and Philip Glass. But there was a volte face in ‘Paul Atreïdes’, a noisy half hour jam with his HELDON band mates that took up an entire side.
The only album by the tragic figure of Wolfgang Riechmann, ‘Wunderbar’ was an elegant and ultimately fragile collection with a fine balance of electronic technology and real instrumentation where none of the elements were overdone. The resonant melancholy of its content became even more poignant once it is learnt that he was murdered in Düsseldorf just weeks before its release by Sky Records in August 1978.
After the success of ‘Flammenden Herzen’ set Michael Rother off on the path to becoming Germany’s answer to Mike Oldfield, his second solo album ‘Sterntaler’ saw a greater use of synths for melody lines as on the uplifting title track. ‘Orchestrion’ was more of a layered guitar symphony but the moody textures of ‘Sonnenrad’ would later become the inspiration for ULTRAVOX’s ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’.
‘Sterntaler’ is still available via Grönland Records
Conrad Schnitzler had been a member of TANGERINE DREAM and KLUSTER before going solo. ‘Con’ was produced by Peter Baumann. While much of the album was unsettling soundscapes like ‘Electric Garden’ and ‘Black Nail’, ‘Ballet Statique’ was his most accessible piece and up there with the best of minimally structured German electronic music. Meanwhile ‘Zug’ did as the title suggested with its locomotive rhythm collage.
After his 1977 masterpiece ‘Mirage’, Klaus Schulze was by now well into what many consider his imperial phase and planting the seed for New Age in the process. For the ambitious double opus ‘X’, drums by Harald Grosskopf and strings were incorporated into “Six Musical Biographies” in honour of figures such as philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, composer Friedemann Bach and ‘Dune’ author Frank Herbert.
Having had a worldwide hit with ‘Magic Fly’, ‘Just Blue’ was the third album by France’s SPACE and the last featuring original writer Ecama, the pseudonym of Didier Marouani. With proggier inflections and more vocal phrasing, this album did not hit the highs of ‘Magic Fly’ but this was still a good record. The title song had catchy synth hooks while ‘Final Signal’ brought in fretless bass and ‘Secret Dreams’ got all new age.
Best known for 1974’s pioneering ‘Snowflakes Are Dancing’ which reinterpreted Debussy, Isao Tomita was applying his Moog modular craft to Prokofiev and Sibelius for an ambitious concept album subtitled “A Musical Fantasy of Science Fiction”, there was even an adaptation of ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’. As befitting a record about ‘The Bermuda Triangle’, it was dark and experimental in places with a fabulous palette of sound design.
Working with the legendary Conny Plank for their third album ‘Systems Of Romance’, ULTRAVOX became more texturally powerful thanks to the ARP Odyssey of Billy Currie, Chris Cross’ EMS Synthi AKS and new guitarist Robin Simon. Despite leader John Foxx leaving to go solo, ‘Slow Motion’, ‘Quiet Man’, ‘Dislocation’ and ‘Just For A Moment’ were a harbinger of things that were to come with a certain Gary Numan taking notes.
‘Systems Of Romance’ is still available on ‘The Island Years’ via Caroline Records
YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA was intended as one-off project for producer Haruomi Hosono with Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto; all three already had solo careers. Their self-titled debut was noted for its use of the then-new Roland MC8 Micro-Composer progammed by Hideki Matsutake. The trio became standard bearers for Japanese technopop with the hit single ‘Firecracker’, also known as ‘Computer Game’.
While 1979 saw a post-punk revolution with new wave and ska emerge as energetic expressions of youth with the likes of JOY DIVISION, XTC, THE SPECIALS and MADNESS, maturer acts with power pop sensibilities such as BLONDIE and THE POLICE dominated the UK charts.
But the synthesizer had become a new tool of creativity for those who weren’t interested in learning chords on a guitar and preferred to use one finger, thanks to its new found affordability with refined technology from Japan. While electronics had been present in disco, progressive rock and esoteric avant garde forms, following seminal records in 1978 such as ‘Warm Leatherette’ b/w ‘TVOD’ by THE NORMAL and ‘Being Boiled’ by THE HUMAN LEAGUE, a new DIY artpop form was developing that would eventually take on KRAFTWERK at their own game.
Among those fledgling electronic acts who released their debut singles in 1979 on independent labels were OMD with ‘Electricity’ on Factory Records and FAD GADGET with ‘Back To Nature’ on Mute Records. Meanwhile on another independent Rough Trade, CABARET VOLTAIRE achieved a wider breakthrough with ‘Nag Nag Nag’, the standalone single accompanying their first album ‘Mix-Up’.
Having experimented with synths on ‘Low’ released in 1977, David Bowie had gone to see THE HUMAN LEAGUE at The Nashville in late 1978 and hailed them as “the future of rock ‘n’ roll”. Alas it was TUBEWAY ARMY fronted by Gary Numan who beat THE HUMAN LEAGUE to the top of the UK singles charts in Summer 1979 with Are Friends Electric?’. However, just a few weeks earlier, SPARKS had taken the Giorgio Moroder produced ‘No1 Song In Heaven’ into the UK Top20. But however history is perceived, a revolution had begun that would lead to the dawn of “synthpop” in 1980.
Here are 20 albums which ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK sees as contributing to the electronic legacy of 1979. They are listed in alphabetical order with a restriction of one album per artist moniker, meaning Gary Numan and Edgar Froese appear twice…
ASHRA Correlations
As ASHRA, Manuel Göttsching released what many consider to be his first ambient masterpiece ‘New Age Of Earth’. On 1978’s ‘Blackouts’, he expanded the line-up to include drumming synthesist Harald Grosskopf and guitarist Lutz Ulbrich which continued on ‘Correlations’. Despite being more rock-oriented, it featured sequenced electronics with ‘Club Cannibal’ almost entering Jean-Michel Jarre territory.
Although he had released ‘Romance ‘76’ while still a member of TANGERINE DREAM, Peter Baumann’s first solo album after departing the band was something of an interim record before venturing into electronic pop with ‘Repeat Repeat’. Mostly shorter instrumental compositions using mysterious melodies and occasional vocoder textures, ‘Trans Harmonic Nights’ remains something of an underrated electronic gem.
With TANGERINE DREAM taking a misstep with ‘Cyclone’ and perhaps prompted by the success of Jean-Michel Jarre’s electronic symphonies, on his fifth solo album ‘Stuntman’, Edgar Froese was at his most accessible with strong synth melodies, particularly on the title track. Elsewhere, new ages resonances were starting to develop while on ‘Drunk Mozart In The Desert’, there were atmospherics coupled with a rhythmic bounce.
Produced and co-written by Zeus B Held, the debut album by androgynous art history student Gina Kikoine featured an array of ARP and Moog synths to signal the birth of a new European Underground. Cult club favourite ‘No GDM’ was written in honour of the “great dark man” Quentin Crisp while other highlights included the detached vocoder assisted robotic soul of the title song and the feisty gender statement ‘Be A Boy’.
With Giorgio Moroder acquiring Roland’s new System 700 and an MC8 Micro-composer to control it, ‘E=MC2’ was touted as the first “electronic live-to-digital” album. This allowed for an uptempo funkiness previously unheard on sequencer based music to come into play. With the electronically treated vocals and euphoric energy of the marvellous ‘What A Night’, the sound of DAFT PUNK was inadvertently being invented!
As a member of GONG and solo artist, Steve Hillage had a love of German experimental music and ventured into ambient with long standing partner Miquette Giraudy. Recorded for the Rainbow Dome at the ‘Festival For Mind-Body-Spirit’ at London’s Olympia, these two lengthy Moog and ARP assisted tracks each had a beautifully spacey vibe to induce total relaxation with a colourful sound spectrum.
With a manifesto of “synthesizers and vocals only”, the debut album by THE HUMAN LEAGUE included ‘Empire State Human’, ‘Circus Of Death’, ‘Almost Medieval’, ‘Blind Youth’ and a stark cover of ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’. Produced by Colin Thurston, while ‘Reproduction’ was not a commercial success, Philip Oakey, Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware gained valuable experience that would progress their careers.
Although considered a 1980 album, the third JAPAN long player was actually released late 1979 in Japan, Canada, Holland and Germany. Featuring the sequencer-driven title song as well as the rockier ‘Halloween’ and a cover of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND’s ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’, despite Roxy rip-off accusations, it was a major artistic step forward as a quality timeless work embracing synths, muzak and orchestrations.
Devoid of guitar but using a flesh-and-blood rhythm section, Gary Numan realised his dream of producing a new form, machine rock. Synths were fed through guitar effects pedals to add a more sinister metallic tone and while there was sombre isolation communicated on all the songs, there was a catchy melodic sensibility to songs such as ‘Cars’, ‘Metal’, ‘Films’, ‘Engineers’ and ‘M.E.’ which turned Numan into the first synthesizer pop star.
Originally released on THROBBING GRISTLE’s Industrial Records, ‘The Bridge’ album saw Scottish duo Thomas Leer and Robert Rental trading vocal and instrumental duties using early affordable synths such as the EDP Wasp. Comprising of a side of five songs and a side with four ambient instrumentals, ‘Day Breaks, Night Heals’ and ‘Monochrome Days’ both showcased an avant pop sensibility. Robert Rental sadly passed away in 2000.
Best known as a member of CLUSTER with the late Dieter Moebius and working with Brian Eno on two albums, ‘Selbstportrait’ was Hans-Joachim Roedelius’ third solo long player. This was a “self-portrait” reflecting the gentle introspective ambience of the record. Something of a sister record to the 1977’s marvellous ‘Sowiesoso’, it was more accessible than CLUSTER’s own structurally minimal ‘Grosses Wasser’ also issued in 1979.
After the ambitious double opus ‘X’ which also incorporated strings in a record comprising of “Six Musical Biographies” in honour of figures including philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and ‘Dune’ author Frank Herbert, Klaus Schulze conceived an actual album called ‘Dune’. Something of a diversion, ‘Shadows of Ignorance’ featured the eccentric poetry of Arthur Brown while the experimental ambient title track made use of cello.
Stronger than their debut LP ‘Life In A Day’, SIMPLE MINDS started experimenting with more electronics and a very European austere on its swift follow-up ‘Real To Real Cacophony’ with the title song presenting their take on KRAFTWERK’s ‘Radio-Activity’. Underground and pulsating through on ‘Changeling’, that breakthrough single and ‘Premonition’ really were a sign of things to come in their dark avant disco templates.
Following the inspirational success of ‘I Feel Love’, SPARKS were put in contact with its producer Giorgio Moroder who had aspirations to work with a band. The resultant album saw Russell Mael’s flamboyant falsetto fitting well with the pulsing electronic disco template. ‘The No1 Song In Heaven’ hit the UK Top 20 a few months before ‘Are Friends Electric?’ while the follow-up ‘Beat The Clock’ got into the Top 10.
‘No1 In Heaven’ is still available via Lil Beethoven Records
Still feeling the void left by the departure of Pete Baumann, following the vocal experiment of ‘Cyclone’, Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke opted to retain drummer in Klaus Krüger. While there was also increased guitar and piano usage, the title song and ‘Thru Metamorphic Rocks’ utilised pulsing sequencer passages to signal the future Hollywood direction that TANGERINE DREAM would head in.
The ethos of Belgian trio TELEX was “making something really European, different from rock, without guitar”. ‘Looking For Saint Tropez’ contained ‘Moscow Diskow’ which took the Trans-Siberian Express to Moscow by adding a funkier groove. Also included were funereal robotic covers of ‘Rock Around The Clock’ which was a UK Top40 hit and Plastic Bertrand’s ‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’ as well as their deadpan debut single ‘Twist A Saint Tropez’.
The title and the group photo on Beachy Head were tongue-in-cheek statements but THROBBING GRISTLE were still deathly uncompromising as shown by ‘Persuasion’. However, there were glints of light with the glorious cascading instrumental ‘Walkabout’ and mutant disco lento of ‘Hot On The Heels Of Love’ as Cosey Fanni Tutti’s whispered vocals competed with synthetic whip-crack and drill noises!
Whereas the TUBEWAY ARMY debut featured punk tunes with added synth, ‘Replicas’ would see the Philip K Dick inspired dystopian vision of Gary Numan paired with appropriate electronic sounds as the main melodic component on the now classic UK No1 ‘Are Friends Electric?’. But the earlier singles ‘Down In The Park’ and the lengthy instrumental ‘I Nearly Married A Human’ pointed to a future guitar-free follow-up.
Although VANGELIS had never been to China at the time the album was recorded, he had developed a passionate fascination for its people, culture and vast landscape, noting a connection between ethnic Greek and Chinese music. Using traditional elements alongside his synthesizers, the centrepieces were the majestic ‘Chung Kuo’ and the meditative pentatonic piece ‘The Tao Of Love’. ‘China’ remains an underrated record in his canon.
The second and best YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA album featured an embarrassment of riches. It included the glorious Technopop of ‘Rydeen’, the mighty citypop of ‘Technopolis’, the moodier ‘Castalia’ and the Cossack romp of ‘Absolute Ego Dance’. But it was the iconic ‘Behind The Mask’ originally composed for Seiko which was later covered by Greg Phillinganes, Eric Clapton and Michael Jackson.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.
Follow Us!